McDonald's CEO Defends Ronald McDonald, Food Quality

McDonald's CEO Don Thompson is defending his company's food quality, and its use of its clown mascot, Ronald McDonald. The Huffington Post reports on the interview Thompson gave to Bloomburg TV's Betty Liu:

"We have tremendously high quality proteins," he says. "It is all real food," he continues. "We have always supported high quality food. We support farmers, fresh food."

Liu brings up kids' food at McDonald's and Thompson responds, "We've added more fruits, more vegetables, we've changed our milks...we've done a lot of things." He also reaffirms that the company will "continue to try to do more."

Thompson gets defensive though, when it comes to marketing to children. People blame Ronald McDonald for peddling food to children, he claims, but argues that the blame is misguided. Ronald is merely a brand icon that is involved with the company's charities, he explains. "When is the last time you saw Ronald eating food or marketing to your children? You haven't seen Ronald do that," he says.

The CEO gets more personal when he discusses his own children. "I bring my kids to McDonald's now because the food is high-quality. It's safe."